Table of Contents: The Promise of Plant Translational Research

COVER

Image Credit: Phil Dubois, Flickr

As the world's human population continues to expand, and as water resources come under increasing pressure and pathogens that cause devastating crop losses continue to spread in the face of increased global commerce and climate change, there is a pressing need for plant research to contribute solutions to improving food security in a sustainable and safe way.

Plant translational research - the development of basic plant research discoveries into technologies or approaches that improve agriculture - has a vital role to play in meeting these challenges, and given the importance of research in this field, PLOS believes that such work should be published in open access journals, ensuring that it reaches the widest possible audience without any barriers to access.

The technical advances highlighted in this PLOS Collection exemplify how basic research discoveries are being translated into methods to develop and improve, both agriculturally and environmentally, important crop traits.

At PLOS, we are committed to supporting breakthroughs in both basic and translational plant science. We encourage plant researchers to submit their high quality plant research and, in particular, plant research that has clear translational possibilities.

The Collection was produced with the support of The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The Collection will be updated periodically with new Plant Translational Research.